Center may notify those with COVID
Jobs would resume at Henderson office
A bottleneck in COVID-19 case investigations in Southern Nevada could soon be eased through a contract with a Henderson call center, a state official said Monday.
Working with the Southern Nevada Health District, the state plans to task the call center with calling individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and requesting the names of their close contacts. These close contacts can then be notified that they may have been exposed to the coronavirus and should selfquarantine to avoid spreading the disease.
The contract with the call center would add 100 full-time positions to assist with disease investigation, said Julia Peek, a deputy administrator with the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. The aim is for the call center operation to launch as soon as next week, she said during a daily telebriefing with reporters.
The unidentified call center already has worked with other states to reduce or eliminate their backlogs, “and so they already have a proven track record,” Peek said.
A spike in cases has created a backlog in investigations, forcing the health district to prioritize which cases to contact by phone, Southern Nevada Health District senior investigator Devin Raman told the Las Vegas Review-journal last week. The district also has an automated system that notifies individuals by text or email that they have tested positive and that requests that they submit information on their close contacts. The automated system has not been as effective in getting names of contacts to initiate contact tracing as a personal call from a disease
sparked nationwide protests and an enduring conversation about police brutality and institutional racism.
“The movement for Black lives won’t stop until we reach true liberation,” Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Executive Director Laura Martin said in a statement. “The public lynching of George Floyd opened many eyes to injustices my community has had to endure for far too long. And a new wave of activism is sweeping the state to reimagine and fight for a world where we’re all free.”
The groups that backed the boycott also held a rally Monday in front of the Sawyer Building at Washington Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard North.
At its peak, the gathering drew about 100 people.
Michael Collins, a registered
nurse at University Medical Center and union steward for SEIU Local 1107, told attendees that “white supremacy and economic exploitation have been inextricably linked” since the beginning of the United States.
“We can no longer ignore the deadly impacts of structural racism in America’s economy and democracy,” Collins told attendees.
Collins told the Las Vegas Review-journal that the most important thing for people to do is vote, especially in local races.
Organizers are planning to have people speak directly to elected officials at the Clark County Commission meeting Tuesday.
Monday’s boycott was supported by SEIU Local 1107, the NAACP’S local chapter, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and New Era Las Vegas.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.